The Impact of the Rural Southern Culture of White Parents on the Health, Education, and Welfare of their Children.

Dillman, Caroline M.

White children of the rural South are caught between two cultures--the middle class value system taught at school and the rural lower/working class values held by their parents. Differences in values and the attitudes of parents present an impediment to the children's education as well as to the successful implementation of health, education, and welfare programs. Wary of outsiders, the parents resist programs designed to "help". Differences in personal priorities, lifestyle, and acceptable standards of living result in their insistance on continuing a standard of living they deem adequate and sometimes good. Little research has been done on this subpopulation; when introducing new programs change agents have little information to aid them in understanding the culture. They need to know more about how the people will receive a program, what impact information and education will have, what alternative tactics might be used, and how utilization could be increased. In-depth research of a descriptive, ethnographic nature is called for before improvements can be realized; it will pave the way for greatly needed help in overcoming the extreme deficiencies in the rural South where great numbers of the poor and disadvantaged are to be found. (Author/DS)